Passionate about IP! Since June 2003 the IPKat weblog has covered copyright, patent, trade mark, info-tech and privacy/confidentiality issues from a mainly UK and European perspective. The team is David Brophy, Birgit Clark, Merpel, Jeremy Phillips, Eleonora Rosati, Darren Smyth, Annsley Merelle Ward and Neil J. Wilkof. You're welcome to read, post comments and participate in our community. You can email the Kats here

For the half-year to 30 June 2015, the IPKat's regular team is supplemented by contributions from guest bloggers Suleman Ali, Tom Ohta and Valentina Torelli.

Regular round-ups of the previous week's blogposts are kindly compiled by Alberto Bellan.

Sunday, 3 August 2014

Not that any member of this blog team would dream of addressing so august a personage as Christopher Rennie-Smith as "Kit", it is well established that Kit is a friendly and informal abbreviation of the name Christopher and, for the sake of a memorable headline, the Kats have slipped into informal mode. Christopher Rennie-Smith -- for it is he -- is an august and respected member of the Fraternity of Bearded Intellectual Property Enthusiasts. Following a spell on the Continent, Christopher has returned to England where he has joined up with Collyer-Bristow, a law firm that has the good fortune to be located within convenient walking distance of The Old Nick. According to his Collyer-Bristow web page:

"Christopher is a member of our Intellectual Property team with over 30 years' experience in the field. He is well-known among IP professionals, both in the UK and internationally. He recently re-joined the firm after 15 years in Munich as a member of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Organisation, most recently as chairman of a biotechnology board and member of the Enlarged Board of Appeal. Previously he specialised for some 20 years in intellectual property litigation, acted for a number of household name companies, and co-ordinated parallel cases across and beyond Europe. ...Christopher speaks French, German and “passable” Swedish [Merpel wonders what it passes for ...]. He is currently one of the contributors to a book on patent proceedings in several countries. He is a frequent speaker on patent law and procedure both at IP conferences and on specialist courses for lawyers and patent attorneys".

Despite all this experience, you can get a slice of Christopher's wisdom at absolutely no cost by coming to the forthcoming IPKat seminar, "Christopher Rennie-Smith talks to a Kat", at which he will answer questions and engage in genial banter with IPKat team member and patent attorney Darren Smyth (EIP, also fortuitously within convenient walking distance of The Old Nick) before taking questions from the audience. It's rumoured that Christopher will face questions like “What really happens when the Board prepares for Oral Proceedings?” and “Do Oral Proceedings ever change the outcome?” [Says Merpel, some of us think we already know the answer to that one, but does Christopher ...?].IPKat blogmeister Jeremy will wander down from his cosy nook at Olswang LLP (no prizes for guessing the hostelry from which it's a convenient walking distance) to keep order and ensure that fair play prevails, and Patrick Wheeler will be there on behalf of the host firm to offer everyone some appropriate words of welcome.Details are as follows:

Order of ceremonies: registration from 5 pm; welcome and intro 5.20 pm; Discussion followed by questions and answers 5.30 pm; refreshments 6.45 pm

What does it cost? Nothing! Like all IPKat events, it's free

To register, just email the IPKat at theipkat@gmail.com with the subject line "Kat Chat". The IPKat will confirm your place when he has the chance to do so.Warning from Merpel: "space is limited, and it's first-come, first-served. If you can't come after all, please tell us so that we can pass your place over to someone else. If you can't come and don't tell us, I'll write your name in the Naughty Book ..."